August 15, 2009: San Jose, Costa Rica

Liam: I woke up around 9 o’clock and my stomach was hurting, I ate a banana because I thought I was hungry but my stomach still hurt. Owen and Sean went to get food for breakfast while I stayed home and while they were gone I threw up three times. The rest of the day I slept and lay down until around 4:50 when we went to meet our tour group, some people were missing and there were only eight of us. Four people from Canada, us three form the United States, and one person from Germany. After about an hour of going over the trip with our tour guide we walked downtown as a group and got dinner from a restaurant. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and got ready for bed.

Owen: Today was pretty relaxed and chill. We all slept in a bit and palled around the room for a little while. Sean and I went out to get some breakfast to bring back to the room. We bought two different types of breads, one was a cinnamon-sugar style and the other has cheese inside, and a huge bottle of water. Upon returning to the room, we found Liam throwing up near the front door! Que Lastima*, pobresito! After Sean cleaned it all up, and Liam took a shower, we ate and Sean and I went back out. Don’t worry, we made sure Liam was comfortable and drinking a lot of water before we left.

As we cruised around town, we saw a man in all silver doing a statue pose, and a man playing a dijerido (sp?), a maraca, a tambourine, and a drum, all at the same time! It sounded amazing! We stopped in a sandwich shop for lunch, and discovered more places of interest where we could bring Liam later. We decided to buy more water, so we headed off for the “Mas o Menos” market and on the way, Sean ran into the street and was almost hit by a car! Ay, Camote**! It was very scary, but we got over that quickly, got to the Super Mercado, bought two large bottles of water and a box of cereal bars. With our feast, we returned to the hotel, finding Liam sound asleep. He woke up, and we went to the patio to eat our sandwiches. I got salami; Sean got ham and cheese (I know! Ay que pena***! But He had to take a break on his vegetarianism while here, so he is able to survive), and we bought Liam a beef and tomato, which he couldn’t eat.

Back at the room, we all took a short nap, and when I awoke, I found that Sean had gone on another walk. I turned on the ESPN Deportes channel and found that Del Portro was whooping Nadal in tennis, and Vejay Singh got an eagle on a beautiful chip in from about 35 feet out. You can see how uneventful today was, when I talk about what was on T.V. Anyways, around 5ish, we met up with the people we would be spending every minute of the next 16 days with. We paid, and got vital information for the tour, and then went to dinner. To finish the evening, we watched John Stewart and started blogging around 9. We are getting ready for bed now. Off to the Caribbean coast tomorrow!

P.S. Today is Mother’s Day in Costa Rica, so all of us would just like to say Happy Costa Rican Mother’s Day, Madre! We love you!

*Que Lastima/ Ay Que Pena – Phrases of grief, similar to “Oh No!” but directly translated to “What a pity” and “Oh what a shame!”, respectively.

** Camote – “Sweet Potato”, but in Costa Rica is slang for a Crazy person.

Sean: Well as the boys pointed out, today was a little slow / rough. Perhaps we pushed it too hard yesterday. Anyway, I spent most of the day concerned about Liam. Luckily, he is back to himself now and is as healthy as can be. All of us are ready to get out of San Jose and into the wilds of costa rica. So far our fellow G.A.P travelers seem quite nice. As of right now we are the only boys/men on the tour. Tomorrow we will meet the other half of our group. The tour guide is a local Costa Rican. He seems nice but his English is a little rough and he is a bit more unorganized that leaders I have seen in the past. Wish us luck (and good weather) as we head off to the Caribbean coast!